Since Electric Pencil first debuted in 1976, more than 400 other word processing packages have emerged, most fading into oblivion. This article--first of two in this issue that together recount the history of microcomputer word processing software--focuses on three of the earliest word processing software packages, Electric Pencil, EasyWriter, and WordStar, which was the mid-1980s leader in the CP/M, PC-DOS, and MS-DOS operating system environments

6. A strict interpretation of Annals "15 year rule" would prohibit discussion of events after 1991; however, a more convenient ending has been chosen based on events surrounding Microsoft Word for Windows.

7. P. Freiberger and M. Swaine, Fire in the Valley: The Making of the Personal Computer, pp. 41–49.

8. Ibid., p. 149.

9. M. Campbell-Kelly, From Airline Reservations to Sonic the Hedgehog: A History of the Software Industry, MIT Press, 2003. p. 217.

10. The Homebrew was an early user "information exchange" between people interested in computers. The first meeting of the Amateur Computer Users Group (aka Homebrew Computer Club) took place on 5 March 1975 in Gordon French's garage in Menlo Park, Calif.

11. Bob Marsh and Gary Ingram founded Processor Technology to manufacture microcomputers in 1975; the other manufacturers at this time were Micro Instrumentation Telemetry Systems (MITS), which built the Altair, and Cromemco, founded by Harry Garland and Roger Melen.

12. P. Freiberger and M. Swaine, Fire in the Valley, p. 146.

13. See "Electric Pencil," in P. Freiberger and M. Swaine, Fire in the Valley, pp. 186–192.

17. The Electric Pencil Word Processor, operator's manual, copyright 1977 by Michael Shrayer, can be found on Ira Goldklang's site: http:/www.trs-80.com. The operator's manual is in upper and lower case; printing was done on a Diablo 1620 using an OCR-B printwheel and a carbon film ribbon.

18. For example, the Apple and Radio Shack machines had proprietary operating systems; the IMSAI, Cromemco, Kaypro, and Osborne machines had a version of CP/M.

19. The periodical literature uses Electric Pencil II, although the title on the operator's manual is The Electric Pencil2.0z; see http:/www.trs-80.com.

22. R. Hallen, "Super Word Processors," p. 215, opined that "Just about any text-editing facility can be used to create the data list …" Another unusual feature of the Sharpener is that it did not come with an instruction manual; the master disk contained some information files that could be read on the screen or printed out. It was not for the faint of heart!

27. Forth is unique among programming languages in that its development and proliferation has been a grassroots effort of professional applications, developers, and hobbyists. See E.D. Rather et al., "The Evolution of Forth," History of Programming Languages, T.J. Bergin and R.G. Gibson, eds., ACM Press, 1996, pp. 625–670.

29. This was at a time when most software was given away through the sharing programs of the various user groups for Apple, Radio Shack, Commodore, and other machines; thus EasyWriter and Electric Pencil would have been among the earliest software to be sold rather than shared.

43. For an interesting, short biography of Rubinstein, see R. Levering, M. Katz, and M. Moskowitz, The Computer Entrepreneurs: Who's Making It Big and How in America's Upstart Industry, New American Library, 1984, pp. 214–220.

44. W. Rubinstein, "Recollections: The Rise and Fall of WordStar," IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, vol. 28, no. 4, pp. 64–72.

51. WordStar advertisement, Personal Computing, vol. 5, no. 1, 1981, p. 9. In comments on WordStar, Rick Chapman reminds us that "WYSIWYG" in 1978 did not mean what it means today in a Windows environment (see M.R. Chapman, In Search of Stupidity: Over 20 Years of High-Tech Marketing Disasters, Apress, 2003, p. 49).

52. At this time, most users had to print their material many times to see the effect of formatting commands, which were embedded in the text but not shown on the screen; some later packages, such as WordPerfect, let users toggle between versions of a document displaying or suppressing such format commands.

53. Waldrop and other authors believe WYSIWYG was introduced by the Bravo text editor at Xerox PARC; Wikipedia attributes "WYSIWYG" to a newsletter published by Arlene and Jose Ramos, called WYSIWYG, which was created for the emerging prepress industry going electronic in the late 1970s. Some authors believe that the origin of WYSIWYG was a re-use of a popular line used by comedian Flip Wilson doing "Geraldine," a character on the Flip Wilson Show in the early 1970s.

54. A "killer application" is an application that is so compelling that it motivates people to purchase a computer to be able to use the application. Although numerous sources identify VisiCalc as the first killer app, I believe that Rubinstein's assertion is at least as compelling.